NEWARK -- A former top aide to Newark Mayor Cory Booker pleaded not guilty in federal court in Trenton today to extortion and bribery for allegedly funneling contracts to a trucking company that he partially owned.

Ronald Salahuddin, who resigned last year as deputy mayor, was charged with steering contracts in 2006 and 2007 to a demolition firm. In return, authorities say, Salahuddin demanded the firm hire his business partner in the trucking company, Sonnie Cooper, as a subcontractor.

Cooper also pleaded not guilty. U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson released Salahuddin on $250,000 bail; Cooper was released on $100,000.

Salahuddin, 59, was among the first high-level appointments made by Booker, elected in 2006 as a self-proclaimed reformer who vowed to fight corruption. U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman has said there is no evidence that Booker was involved in wrongdoing.